Stanford rape case judge Aaron Persky has gained backlash again as he is accused of leniency. He reportedly gave another athlete, who was charged with attacking his girlfriend, a break.
According to CBS News, the Stanford rape case judge allowed the accused athlete to have a plea deal which let him avoid jail and stay on the football team. A new judge already gave the student a stiffer penalty last Tuesday.
College of San Mateo football star Keenan Smith has been sentenced to spend about eight weekends in jail. He also needs to complete a domestic violence class, which will a year, for assaulting his girlfriend.
KMOV.com reported that Smith knocked his girlfriend to the ground in a parking lot. He also punched a bystander who tried to intervene.
It is part of a tougher sentence by the new judge. This comes after Smith failed to comply with the Stanford rape case judge's more lenient sentence. Stanford University law professor Michelle Dauber slammed Persky for poor judgment on Smith's case.
"It's clear now that another judge who does not share Judge Persky's bias towards student-athletes has looked at this and now Mr. Smith is getting a stiffer penalty and is now being held accountable," she said. "We just can't have judges who think football is more important than violence against women."
Public Defender Gary Goodman, on the other hand, took Persky's side. He noted that the District Attorney's Office was the one that first reduced Smith's charges from a felony to a misdemeanor. Apparently, Persky's original sentence was part of a plea deal that is based on the accused's age and his lack of a criminal record.
"Judge Persky had nothing to do with this," Goodman added. "It was the charging body, the executive, who determined what sentence he was going to get."
Former Stanford University student Brock Turner was convicted of raping an unconscious woman. However, he was released from jail early Friday morning, Sep. 2. He only served three months of his six-month sentence, which faced backlash for its leniency.
